ALL QUIET LOCALLY ON THE Y2K FRONT COMPUTER BUG FAILS TO LIVE UP TO DIRE PREDICTIONS.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - This much can be said about the Y2K bug in Santa Clarita: It's been consistent, but not pesky.

It failed to make an appearance overnight Friday when city officials monitored the calendar year's rollover from 1999 to 2000, and there was no sign of the Y2K bug Monday morning when city workers returned to their desks and logged on to their PCs.

Government officials and computer experts across America had eyed Monday - the first official workday of 2000 - as the second major checkpoint for municipalities to assess the effects of the four-digit date change, which it was feared would cause widespread computer failure. The first assessment began at midnight New Year's Eve and lasted into the early-morning hours.

But city officials reported that technology-dependent systems such as streetlights and phone systems had continued operating without interruption since New Year's and there were no glitches in government administration computers or data-processing programs when offices reopened after the holiday weekend.

``Everything's status quo,'' said city emergency response coordinator Donna Nuzzi, who monitored worldwide and local events until 6 a.m. Saturday for potential Y2K-related problems from the Emergency Operations Center at City Hall. ``The millennium enters with uneventful events, but that's the way we wanted it anyway.''

City information technology manager Paul Zaengle said the city's ``critical'' monitoring period had passed by early Monday afternoon. ``The big thing was turning everything on, checking our hardware and software. Everything worked fine,'' Zaengle said.

The only signs of Y2K were several e-mails the city received from outside senders that were dated 1900, he said, adding, ``But that doesn't affect our computers. We just laughed about those.''

The city's total costs for Y2K readiness and upgrades have not been calculated, city officials said, because older computer systems have been upgraded to Y2K-compliant machines regularly over the past decade and no outside consultants were needed. City staffers were able to identify and correct potential Y2K weaknesses within the past two years, they said.

Los Angeles County Sanitation plants in Valencia and Saugus also had wastewater treatment systems up and running properly Monday morning, after experiencing no disruptions in service over the weekend.

Outside of government operations, Y2K watchdogs had speculated that private companies, small businesses and older household personal computers might experience problems after New Year's. But widespread Y2K problems also failed to materialize on those fronts by late Monday.

Local businesses that troubleshoot and service customers' computer problems reported typical business calls Monday morning, and none that related to Y2K concerns. Most concerns and questions had been raised in weeks that preceded New Year's Eve, they said.

``I think the whole thing was exaggerated as far as personal computers go,'' said Gene Cooper, owner of The Computer Chip, a computer services company. ``The types of problems they were predicting were mostly for big companies that ran those older mainframes. ... Most PCs in people's homes, for the most part, are compliant.''

Generally speaking, residents who purchased new computers in the past two to three years should not experience Y2K-related computer failure, Cooper said, but they might see glitches in older software.

``I have an old accounting program at home that I use for my personal and household expenses,'' Cooper said of a 10-year-old program. ``When I entered the date 2000 this weekend, I couldn't pull up that report.''